Han and Luke's Cross-Country Road Trip
by StarGays
Summary: Luke Skywalker has led a simple life in small-town Arizona, but one day everything changed. Now he's driving across America with a hipster and his dog.
1. Ch 1: Where the Streets Have No Name

_I want to run / I want to hide_

-"Where the Streets Have No Name" by U2

It was a Monday morning, and Luke Skywalker was asleep in Algebra 2. Again.

"Mr. Skywalker!" a deep voice bellowed. "See me after class, and until then, please try to remain conscious, capiche?"

"Sorry, Mr. Harris," Luke responded groggily, still trying to shake himself awake. He tried to remember his dream, but it kept slipping away from him. He felt as if it had been a dream he had experienced before, but the details were hazy at best in his mind. He knew it had something to do with his parents, but beyond that, he had no clue.

Dreaming of his parents was nothing new though, of course: they had passed away fifteen years prior, when Luke was barely one year old. He remembered very little of them, and without the pictures his uncle Lars and aunt Beru had hanging up at home, he doubted he would've even been able to picture their faces.

Luke had been born in Syracuse, NY, but one night while he was home with a babysitter, his parents' car smashed through a guardrail and sank to the bottom of Seneca Lake. After that, he was sent to live with his aunt and uncle in the small town of Safford, AZ. Aside from the occasional vacation, he had stayed there ever since.

"Psst! Luke!" his close friend Biggs whispered to him from the desk to his right. "Are we still going rabbit hunting after school?"

"I can't," Luke whispered back. "I promised my aunt I'd help her paint the living room tonight - she wants to make sure it gets done before I graduate. Sorry!"

Luke and Biggs had been close friends for as long as either of them could remember. The two of them had been inseparable, spending every minute they could together, riding their bikes, watching sports, or (Luke's favorite) stargazing, either at the observatory in town or in the middle of the country, lying on their backs on a tattered quilt, having those special kind of conversations that only happen in very specific, special circumstances.

Luke was internally debating whether it'd be worth it to try to sneak out to go stargazing again that night (the skies were supposed to be clear, so it'd be a waste not to), when suddenly he heard the ancient loudspeaker crackle to life. "Luke Skywalker, report to the principal's office immediately. Luke Skywalker, head straight to the principal's office immediately. Bring your backpack with you."

His classmates snickered, as high school students do when someone is summoned to the principal's office. Luke grabbed his bag, gave a quick wave to Biggs, and walked out of the classroom, ignoring the jests of his fellow students.

In certain belief systems, there are two worlds of existence: our world, and another, much stranger, much more off-putting world, and in certain places, the two are closer than in others. These liminal spaces cause strange feelings in anyone passing through them, often distorting time and distance, creating discomfort, and just generally feeling a little bit off. One of the more commonly experienced liminal spaces, at least for youth, is in school hallways while everyone else is in class. Luke was not an exception to this, and as he walked towards the principal's office, the hallway seemed to stretch forward ahead of him much further than usual. It felt as though he had been walking for hours by the time he finally reached the front office.

"Hi, Susan," he said to the normally energetic receptionist, but her now somber face did not reply. She wordlessly gestured for him to go through the door labeled _Principal Monroe_.

He entered and saw, as expected, Principal Monroe sitting behind his desk. What surprised him, though, was a firefighter seated in one of the two chairs in front of the desk. When he entered, they both stood up, pained expressions on their faces, as if they had something important to say but absolutely no idea how to say it. "What's going on?" Luke asked.

The two men paused, then glanced at each other. "Mr. Skywalker," Principal Monroe finally said, "I'm afraid a tragedy has struck. Please sit down."

Luke ran.

AN: Hey all! Thanks for reading this! This is my first fic ever, so I hope to get better as it comes along. This is a multi-chapter ongoing fic about Han and Luke's road trip across America. When it's finished, the titles of all the chapters will make a great road trip mixtape. Please give me feedback so I can improve! Thanks!


	2. Ch 2: Keep the Car Running

_Every night my dream's the same / Same old city with a different name / Men are coming to take me away / I don't know why, but I know I can't stay_

\- "Keep the Car Running" by Arcade Fire

Luke ran.

He ran out of the principal's office. He ran past the receptionist. He ran out of the front door of the school. He ran past his bike and through the parking lot and out into the street. He kept running through town, past the post office, past the McDonald's. He didn't stop running until he finally reached his house, struck speechless by the sight.

To the left was an ordinary small-town house, number 1134. To the right was a similar house, number 1142. But in the middle, where Luke's home used to be, was a smoldering wreck. The roof had caved in, but some of the walls were still half-standing in a valiant but ultimately useless attempt to keep the house standing. The fire had already been extinguished. The blackened skeleton of this place he called home silently shouted the message that he would never live there again.

Luke ran up to one of the firefighters. "What happened to my aunt and uncle? WHAT HAPPENED TO-" he yelled then stopped mid-sentence as he noticed a nondescript black van with the word CORONER on the side of it in a cold, impersonal font. Laid down next to the van were two figures covered in black plastic.

Luke vomited.

His ears were pounding, and he felt dizzy. He felt his pockets: he still had his smartphone and his wallet, containing a credit card, a library card, and about $25 or so in cash. In his backpack he still had his textbooks, a pencil case, some notebooks (some for school, others for drawing), and the lunch he had packed that day. He had lost everything else.

Luke ran, again.

He didn't know where he was running this time. He had nowhere left to go. He simply ran away.

Some time later, he finally had to stop to catch his breath. He then looked around: he was on the side of a county road, one of the few leading out of town. How the hell did I get all the way out here, he thought to himself. Cars whizzed by, going far above the speed limit, as one does on small, fairly empty county roads. He kept walking on the shoulder, still in the opposite direction of Stafford. He went on, probably for about half an hour, when he heard a car come by, slower this time. It kept slowing down and came to a stop next to Luke.

"Need a lift, kid?"

Through the window of the dust-covered white sedan, Luke saw a large, shaggy dog, its tongue hanging out and its right ear turned inside out, its left still flopped next to its face. Next to the dog, in the driver's seat, he saw a skinny, darker-skinned man, probably a year or two older than Luke, with long, greasy hair and a toothpick sticking out of his mouth. He was wearing a brown leather jacket over a long-sleeved shirt that may have once been white but had long since been stained to a faded cream-ish yellow-ish color.

"Did you hear me, kid? Need a lift? I need to keep the car running, she's a bitch to start."

Luke finally responded, his throat dry, "Where you headed?"

"San Diego," the man responded.

Luke wordlessly climbed into the backseat of the car and sat in the middle, attempting to buckle his seatbelt - he heard the click each time, but as soon as he let go it came undone again.

"This piece of shit never had working seatbelts, but trust me, I won't crash her, and if I do, you'll be fine."

Luke was wary about this as the car looked like it could fall apart at any second, but he stopped trying to buckle in. _San Diego_ , he thought. Luke had never been to San Diego before, but it seemed like as good of a place as any now that he had nowhere to go.

"What's your name, kid?" the man asked as he pulled back onto the road.

"Luke. Luke Skywalker."

"Well if that ain't the second-most pretentious name of anyone I've ever met."

"What's the most pretentious?" Luke asked.

"Mine. The name's Han Solo, nice to meet you."

AN: Here at the end is where we actually get started with the meat of the story. Let me know what you think!


	3. Ch 3: Holland, 1945

_But now we must pick up every piece / Of the life we used to love / Just to keep ourselves / At least enough to carry on_

\- "Holland, 1945" by Neutral Milk Hotel

Han pulled the car out of park and pulled back onto the road, heading northwest. The sun was high in the sky, but the car's clock was blinking 8:43. Luke pulled out his phone, held down the center button, and said, "Hey C-3PO, what time is it?"

"It is eight minutes past noon, sir," a voice responded from the phone.

Han chuckled. "You got one of those fancy voice command things, and you use it to check the time? You could just look at the clock on your phone, or even simpler just look at the car clock."

"But the car clock says 8:43, and it's 12:08," Luke replied.

Han retorted, "Actually it says 8:44, and it's 12:09." Indeed, it was. "You just gotta add three hours and 25 minutes to get Arizona time out of it. Easy as pie."

"Why don't you just set it to the correct time?" Luke asked.

"Well I got two answers to that," Han gruffly responded. "I drive through a lot of different time zones with a lot of different daylight savings time rules, and I don't wanna have to push a whole bunch of tiny buttons each time I cross a state line."

"And the second answer?"

Han looked a little less cocky. "It won't let me change it."

Luke wasn't sure how to respond to that, so he kept his mouth shut and decided to just look around the car. The backseat was littered with empty bags of chips, discarded fast-food bags, and the occasional empty energy drink bottle. The middle console in the front showed the incorrect time, the fan settings (it was set to the highest setting, but the fans still weren't spinning), and a small battered GPS was attached to the windshield. It showed that they were on US-70, and a sign that passed by them confirmed this. On the far right side of the GPS, the letter R was scribbled in black sharpie, and on the bottom the letter D was scribbled the same way. The GPS kept making odd beep and whistle sounds, though nothing on the screen seemed to be changing in time with them.

"What's with all those beeps and whistles?" Luke asked.

"Oh, you mean R2-D2?" Han responded. "He's pretty old, been around since before you were born, hell maybe even before your parents were born. He just does it sometimes. Sometimes it matches up with the music, so I don't mind." Indeed, the noises were matching with the Neutral Milk Hotel cassette playing pretty well, though the GPS was a little flat.

"R2-D2?" Luke asked. "Why do you call it that?"

"Ya gotta get your companionship where you can out here on the road. My old GPS kept spinning around on its mount, so I labeled which way was right and which way was down, that's the RD. That GPS gave out on me a couple weeks back though, so this is my second one. Ergo, R2-D2."

"But why not just RD2? I mean, its name was RD, not two separate things, one called R and one called D."

Han looked in the rearview mirror at Luke and raised his eyebrows. "You ask a lotta questions, kid." He then turned up the music.

Luke got the hint.

Instead of continuing the conversation, he decided to pull out his cell phone for a bit. "You have thirteen unread messages from Big D," C-3PO said as Luke activated the screen. "Would you like me to read them, Master Luke?"

Hearing this, Han gave Luke another look with his eyebrows raised even further this time. "No, C-3PO, I'll read them myself, thanks," Luke replied bashfully. _Curse Biggs for changing the names of everyone in my phone_ , Luke thought. He tried to move on and began to read the messages.

"Everything ok?"

"Seriously man u ok?"

"Some scary rumors goin around"

"You nvr came back from the office, whats goin on?"

"Got ur chem hw"

"I m really worried dude"

"Oh my god"

"I'm so sorry dude, I just heard about the fire."

"I can't imagine what you're going through right now. I can barely take it, and I only knew Lars and Beru through you! Ugh"

"If you need absolutely anything just let me know"

"I'm here for you"

"Theyre asking me where u r"

"I'll try to stall"

Tears started to form in Luke's eyes, but he tried to hide them as best as he could since Han already seemed not to like him. He thought earlier that he had lost everything, but that wasn't true.

He still had Biggs.

AN: Ooooo! Emotions! Thanks for reading, next chapter coming soon! As always please give me feedback!


	4. Ch 4: Chicago

_If I was crying / In the van, with my friend / It was for freedom / From myself and from the land_

\- "Chicago" by Sufjan Stevens

Luke was struck by how much Biggs cared about him, and he was barely keeping himself from crying. He replied, "Safe. Leaving town. Talk more soon." Send.

Luke tried to cheer himself up the only way that he knew how. "What's your dog's name?" he asked.

"His name's Chewie, and he's the best damn copilot the world's ever seen. He doesn't eat much, he rarely complains, and best of all, he knows when to shut up."

Luke got the hint.

An hour passed. Luke stared out the window, taking in the Arizona scenery and listening to the music Han was playing. It was extremely varied, and Luke was wondering if it was a radio station but with no ads when the music stopped and Han ejected and flipped over a cassette. Luke caught a glimpse of it - there was a hastily scribbled label on it, nothing professional. A mixtape.

Of course. Luke wondered why he didn't realize before: Han was a hipster. Thinking back, he realized that he couldn't name a single one of the artists that had played so far, and he doubted he would anytime soon. Luke still enjoyed it, but it wasn't his typical fare, which was 70's and 80's rock and pop. _I guess it kind of counts as retro_ , he thought. _Maybe Han has some of that too_.

Luke knew better than to ask though. Han obviously appreciated silence, and over the last hour of it he had visibly relaxed, and, just for a moment, Luke looked in the rearview mirror at Han and thought he saw a glimmer of something in his eye, the true Han shining through the layers of irony and sarcasm. He looked again, though, and it was gone. Han had noticed him staring. He arched a single eyebrow but said nothing.

Luke looked away.

Another hour passed. They had passed through several small towns, and there seemed to be another on the horizon. As they drew closer, Luke saw a large lake on his right, surrounded by cliffs, rocks, and sparse greenery.

They reached the lakeside town and pulled into a gas station parking lot. "The Falcon needs gas. Go get us some food from inside while I'm pumping; that'll be your fare." Han let out Chewie, who was thankful for the room to run and the opportunity to pee.

"The Falcon?" Luke asked. "Why do you call it-" Han glared at him. "Sorry, why do you call her that?"

"She's the Millenium Falcon. She's a 1999 Volkswagen, hence the Millenium, and for the Falcon part, just look at the license plate." Luke looked and saw that it was a Florida vanity plate, reading the word FALCON. Its tabs were missing, and based on how it looked it was probably long expired.

 _Classy_ , Luke thought to himself. "I'll go get some food. What do you want?"

"I'll take a Dr. Pepper, Tropical Skittles, and some teriyaki beef jerky. Get one of the bigger bags."

 _That's pretty expensive_ , Luke thought. He had the credit card, though, which was in his name but was set up to auto-pay from Uncle Lars's bank account. It was only for emergencies, but in Luke's mind they had long since entered a state of emergency.

He went in, grabbed a Sprite and some Cheez-its for himself, then grabbed the Dr. Pepper and the beef jerky. They were out of Tropical Skittles though, so he got Han original.

Luke checked out and left the store just as Han was finishing filling up the Falcon. He got into the backseat again, Chewie got into the passenger seat, and Han sat back behind the wheel. After a couple tries, the Falcon finally started. They pulled out of the parking lot and started driving again, keeping the lake on their right side.

"There's a view up here you wouldn't believe, especially once the sun starts to set," Han said. "It will blow your mind."

Luke nodded, unsure how to respond to that. He hadn't pegged Han for the type to love beautiful views, but he supposed that as a perpetual traveler Han must have seen enough to adopt that into his personality.

They kept driving in silence, broken only by the music from Han's mixtape and the beeps from R2-D2.

Finally, after they had driven what must have been almost the entire circumference of the lake, Han pulled over to the side of the road and turned off the engine. They couldn't see the lake from where they were, as a sharp hill rose from their right side, blocking their view. "Grab the food," Han said as he opened the trunk, grabbing a couple blankets, some dog food, and a jug of water. Luke put the food in his backpack and began to follow Han and Chewie up the hill.

They must have hiked for at least an hour, most of it uphill, before Han finally stopped. "Alright kid," he said, "close your eyes. I'll guide you the rest of the way, but I don't want you to peek at the view before it's absolutely perfect."

Luke was a bit annoyed how Han kept calling him kid when Han couldn't be more than a couple years older than him, but he complied. Han grabbed his hand and walked him forward, uphill a little more. The ground finally evened out; they must have reached the top. "Okay, open," Han said.

Luke opened his eyes, and he saw heaven.

The lake stretched out in front of him, long and thin, with various peninsulas and small, rocky islands sticking out of it. The brush looked greener than ever, and the cliffs rose higher than he thought possible. They had indeed gone mostly around the lake, as the sun was setting in front of them over the lake, casting everything in vibrant shades of red, orange, and purple. It was the most beautiful thing Luke had ever seen.

He finally pulled his eyes away from it and looked over at Han, who he was surprised to see was staring intently at his face. "Pretty sweet, huh?"

Luke, speechless, nodded.

"You're lucky I picked you up, kid - not many hitchhikers end up seeing views like this." Han turned to face the lake. "Say, could you pass me those Skittles?"

Luke paused, the words not registering in his brain for a moment, before he awkwardly took off his backpack and dug inside of it, pulling the Skittles out of the plastic gas station bag and handing them to Han.

Without looking, Han peeled off a corner, grabbed a Skittle, and popped it into his mouth.

"Green apple?!" he screamed, spitting it out. "This isn't fucking tropical!"

AN: Here we go! Finally, the journey is in full swing, and lots is happening! Please let me know what you think!


	5. Ch 5: You! Me! Dancing!

_And it's all flailing limbs at the front line / Every single one of us is twisted by design / And dispatches from the back of my mind / Say as long as we're here everything is alright_

\- "You! Me! Dancing!" by Los Campesinos!

It took a while, but finally, Han had finally finished lecturing Luke on the countless flaws of the green apple Skittle and how it completely ruins the entire pack. Luke nodded along, not entirely paying attention, but promised to never purchase original Skittles until lime returned in place of green apple. By this time, the sun had set, and it was getting dark.

Han tossed Luke a blanket. "Get some sleep; we've got a long day of driving tomorrow." He then poured Chewie some water and food and laid out some blankets for him and the dog. "Oh, and toss me the beef jerky, will you? You better not have gotten peppered instead of teriyaki."

Luke tossed him the beef jerky and the Dr. Pepper just so he wouldn't have to get it out later, then started to munch on his Cheez-its. After finishing his meager dinner, he gathered up part of the blanket into a makeshift pillow and lay down for the night. As he tried to get comfortable on the hard ground, he heard a strange growling noise coming from somewhere nearby. Luke froze in fear, unsure where it was coming from. He slowly rose to a sitting position, trying not to make any sudden movements, and scanned the area. Finally, he discovered the source of the sound - Han was snoring, louder than Luke had ever heard anyone snore. He calmed down and tried to get comfortable again when his phone started to ring. It was Biggs.

"Hey dude," he said as he picked up the phone. "Sorry it's been a wild day. I, uh, I don't really know what's happening."

"Yeah, I heard about your aunt and uncle," Biggs replied. "It's fucked up. I'm so sorry."

"Thanks."

"Where are you though? You said you're leaving town? Why the hell are you doing that?"

"I, um, I'm at some lake northwest of town. A guy picked me up, I'm chilling with him and his dog."

"Some guy and his dog? Why are you risking your life like that? Why didn't you stay here?" Biggs asked, bewildered.

"I don't know!" Luke yelled.

A silence fell for a few seconds.

"I'm sorry for yelling, I'm sorry, I just don't know what's happening and I don't know what to do and I need to get away. I can't handle it anymore. I can't be reminded of Lars and Beru, I don't know where I'd stay, I can't handle responsibility right now. I just needed to leave."

"Oh," Biggs responded.

"I'm sorry. I care about you, Biggs, I really do, and I really value our friendship. I just need to do this for me."

"I understand. Stay safe. Check in every few days, okay?"

"Will do. Love you dude."

"Love you too."

Luke hung up.

He nestled in his blankets and hugged himself, trying to hold in tears. There was so much going on, and he had so many conflicting emotions. He didn't know what to do. _I guess I'll just figure it out when I get to San Diego_ , he thought. _I can't exactly turn around now; maybe, just maybe, when we get there everything will be okay_. He looked over at Han again and realized that the snoring had stopped.

AN: Thanks for reading again! Sorry for the short chapter, I'm hoping to get back into more of a rhythm! Let me know what you think!


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